Everyman's Rules For Scientific Living by Siobhan Jackson Based on, Everyman's Rules For Scientific Living by Carrie Tiffany © Siobhan Jackson 849 High St, Thornbury Victoria, 3071. AUSTRALIA [email protected] +61 407 572 932 NOTE TO READER: THIS IS A 'SILENT' SCREENPLAY WRITTEN FOR A 'SILENT' FILM. IF CHARACTERS TALK ASSUME YOU CANNOT HEAR WHAT THEY ARE SAYING, BUT, THAT YOU CAN SEE THAT THEY ARE SPEAKING. IF ACTIONS SUGGEST ACCOMPANYING SOUNDS ASSUME THEY WILL NOT BE HEARD SYNCHRONOUSLY, BUT THEY MAY FORM SOME ELEMENT OF THE FILMS POST SOUND DESIGN. THERE ARE TWO SCENES THAT BREAK THE 'SILENT' RULE AND INCLUDE ELEMENTS OF SYNCHRONOUS SOUND. THE INCLUSION OF SYNCHRONOUS SOUND IN THESE SCENES IS INDICATED IN THE BIG PRINT AND IS INTENTIONAL. EXCEPTING THE TWO SCENES MENTIONED THE FILM WILL PRESENT AS A 'SILENT' FILMS IN THE OLD FASHIONED SENSE OF THE TERM. 2. 1 INT/EXT STEAM TRAIN DAY 1 Through the window of a steam train pale yellow wheat fields can be seen stretching in all directions. A bright sewing needle pushes through the fine weave of taught linen, deftly guided by a young woman's hand. The train rattles through endless, flat, dry landscape. Sharp horizon lines dividing land from sky in all directions. The sun burns. 2 INT COUNTRY SCHOOL ROOM DAY 2 A large map of Australia hangs on the classroom wall. A wooden pointer strikes the centre of the map with gusto and traces an invisible rectangle in it centre. Jean (6yrs, grubby) sits at a desk surrounded by older girls. The older girls wrap baby dolls in swaddling cloth. A small circle of boys surround a man in military greens. He addresses the boys enthusiastically. Two boys fold brown paper into aeroplanes and fly them through the air like bomber planes, one crashes onto the girls table. There is commotion and giggling. CUT TO: Jean concentrates. She threads a needle in and out of a piece of white cloth making the letters "J-e-a". She pricks her finger with the needle and a small drop of blood stains the white cloth. She looks up to see who might have noticed and sees her father, Frank, talking to the teacher at the door. Frank has taken off his hat in an apologetic gesture. The teacher motions for Jean to join them. 3 EXT COUNTRY SCHOOL DAY 3 Frank hoists Jean onto his back as they walk across the dusty schoolyard. Through a window, the teacher watches them go. 3. 4 INT FARMHOUSE KITCHEN AFTERNOON 4 Frank lopes into the kitchen with Jean hanging from his back like a monkey. Abe, the farm cat, lies still in an apple box on the kitchen table, his fur sticking up all wrong-headed. Frank swings Jean off his back. She strokes at Abe's fur but it won't sit flat. The cat's mouth hangs open a little, the gape showing his pale pink tongue, stiff. Frank parts the fur on Abe's white sock - two puncture wounds an inch apart. 5 EXT ORANGE GROVE DAY 5 The metal edge of a shovel rips into the dry ground. A grave opens in the earth. Jean throws some dandelion heads into the waiting grave and turns to take a last look at Abe, lying in his apple crate coffin. Jean's eyes widen. She tugs at her father's trouser leg. Frank throws his shovel to one side and looks into the box. Abe blinks. Abe blinks again, slow but certain. 6 EXT COUNTRY SCHOOL YARD DAY 6 Sun glares down on the schoolyard. Teachers fan themselves furiously with hat brims, hankies, folded paper, etc. One teacher takes the hat off the head of the child and fans his red face before reluctantly putting the hat back on the child's head. Flies gather on sweaty backs. Jean's mouth is wide open, singing. A portrait of King George V is propped up on a chair before the small school population. A teacher conducts mechanically. Jean enjoys the singing so much some of the other children giggle at her zeal. A child faints. Jean, unaware of the misfortune, keeps singing. The straight line of children behind her turns to chaos. The conductor knocks the King off his chair as she rushes forward. Jean keeps singing. 4. 7 EXT FARMHOUSE FRONT YARD AFTERNOON 7 Abe lies in a warm patch of dirt. Frank breathes into his fetid little mouth. His chest cavity rises and falls gently. Frank feels around his tummy, squeezing until pee trickles out into the dust. Frank stands, assessing the rank little animal. Jean appears, carrying her school satchel. She couches over the motionless little lump of dusty fur. Jean moves Abe's limbs backwards and forwards as though he were walking. 8 EXT COUNTRY SCHOOL YARD DAY 8 A teacher simultaneously extends opposite leg and arm, instructing the children through a make-shift newspaper rolled loud-hailer. A young girl (10yrs) mimics the teacher's stance. She wobbles but does not fall. The teacher throws down the newspaper loud hailer and begins pulling at the child's legs and arms. Jean sits nearby concentrating on her embroidery square. The letters "J-e-a-n--F-i-n-n-e" are spelt across the grubby embroidery square. A roughly stitched man and cat sit below the letters. The stretching girl falls. The teacher takes up her loud- hailer again. 9 INT FARMHOUSE KITCHEN EARLY MORNING. 9 Frank finishes pre-peeling Jean's lunch orange. He winds the perfect spiral of thick orange skin back around the flesh of the fruit. He opens her lunch tin and finds there are three live frogs inside. 10 EXT. ORANGE GROVE AFTERNOON 10 Jean walks through an orange grove on the way home from school swinging her lunch tin. As she makes her way between the fruit trees she sees Abe sitting on a fence post licking his foot as if he had never been sick. (CONTINUED) 5. 10 CONTINUED: 10 Frank appears from the between the boughs of the grove wearing a green wool army uniform, a little too short in the sleeve. He is almost invisible in the greenery. Jean sweeps Abe off the fence rail and stares at her father, scanning the unfamiliar outfit. Frank pulls Jean into a cuddle. Abe hisses from the centre of the embrace. 11 INT FARM HOUSE KITCHEN NIGHT 11 Frank and Jean sit quietly eating their evening meal. Frank's uniform shirt hanging on the back of his chair. He eats in a white singlet. Jean eats quietly, one hand dangling beside her. Abe licks butter off Jean's fingers as her father reads the newspaper. He puts the paper down. Frank picks up an orange from the fruit bowl. There are only oranges in the bowl. He rolls the fruit between his hands. Fidgety. He misjudges a roll and the orange knocks over Jean's milk. Jean leaps up to escape the liquid, knocking down her chair. Abe leaps away. For a moment everything is still. Then suddenly Frank smiles and starts rolling oranges across the table. Milk and fruit are everywhere. Jean erupts in delight. Fruit soccer on a milky turf ensues. Abe licks milk puddles off the floor. 12 EXT/INT FARMHOUSE/ORCHARD DAY 12 The farmhouse is empty bar a few scattered fruit crates and boxes. Abe sits, nailed in an orange crate. Sun streams through gaps in the crate. 13 EXT CITY TRAIN PLATFORM DAY 13 Frank writes on a post card. He uses another soldiers back as a table. (CONTINUED) 6. 13 CONTINUED: 13 The pencil jerks away. The back/table moves. Frank puts the card against his own knee and quickly finishes writing. Men in uniforms stretch as far as the eye can see. 14 EXT COUNTRY TRAIN PLATFORM DAY 14 Jean sits on one of many suitcases piled onto a luggage trolley. She holds a postcard of three soldiers posing with fat white chickens under their arms. She turns it over in her hand. The platform is quiet. A woman in a big coat is fossicking through her bag. She wipes Jean's face with a beautifully embroided hankie. 15 EXT TRAIN DAY 15 A bright orange steam train rattles through a flat dry landscape. The words 'Better Farming Train' are painted across the orange engines nose. Pale yellow wheat fields stretch in all directions from track to horizon. The sun burns. 16 INT TRAIN WOMAN'S CAR DAY 16 A young woman (26 yrs, sturdy) sits alone in a train carriage sewing. It is Jean. Out the windows, a flat, dry landscape passes, and passes. The carriage is filled with of white wooden benches set out in rows. A blackboard, covered with simple chalk clothing diagrams and sewing dummies half dressed fill one end of the carriage. Jean fossicks through a small cardboard sewing basket made from old post cards. There are pictures of landscapes and ponies and ladies on swings. Soldiers holding large white chickens decorate lid. Amongst the threads and scraps of fabric there is a child's stitch sampler. It is the sampler we saw Jean stitching as a child. Jean's name and a roughly stitched man and cat decorate the sampler. Dates have been added under the man by a steadier and more mature hand: 1887- 1915. R.I.P. (CONTINUED) 7. 16 CONTINUED: 16 The train pushes on through the flat, yellow landscape. Jean wraps a tiny piece of white fabric around the tip of her finger. Blood seeps through. 17 INT HORSE CARRIAGE DAY 17 A gleaming colt stands in a sharp lean, pissing hard against the carriage floor.